LOS ANGELES -- Hyun-Jin Ryu had one of his finest outings of the season Sunday, but it nearly went for naught as the Los Angeles Dodgers' bats seem to have gone to sleep in the final series before the All-Star break.
In the sixth inning, the Dodgers finally pushed a run across the plate and although the relief corps was shaky, ultimately it stood up for the second-straight 1-0 win over the San Diego Padres.
At 54-43, Los Angeles owns the best record in the National League at the break for the first time since 2009. Much of the credit for the feat can go to the Dodgers' trio of 10-game winners, a club that Ryu is now a member of after Sunday's performance.
"He's our third starter and he could probably be a lot of teams' first starter," said catcher A.J. Ellis. "That's how good and talented Hyun-Jin is."
Coming off one of the worst outings of his career in Detroit (10 runs in 72 pitches), Ryu three six innings of two-hit shutout ball. He showed exceptional command of his breaking pitches, issuing no walks and struck out 10. It was his second-career multi-strikeout game and he was two away from matching his career high, but was pulled after six innings in order for the pitching staff to give some of the relievers work before the break.
"It was definitely a wakeup call - that last start was very forgettable," Ryu said, through an interpreter. "Specifically, I had really good command of my breaking balls today and I was getting ahead in the count on a lot of hitters for a lot of strikeouts."
"If he has a bad game, it's most 90-something percent good," said manager Don Mattingly. "There's usually never a bad one. So when he has a bad one, the chances of him having two in a row are not high."
Deuces up for the Twin Cities: pic.twitter.com/vHmrsZQsd3
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 14, 2014
His ability to rebound in such a dominant manor after rare rough outings has impressed.
"He's competitive so he takes it personally," Mattingly said. "He gets hit in Detroit a little bit and he came out of that game, went back to work and in today's outing he bounces right back. That's what competitors do."
"The guy pitches to win and he pitches with a lot of pride," Ellis said. "This guy has got a lot of competitiveness in him."
Ryu is 10-5 after the first half while Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke each have 11 wins to their credit. It's the first time since 1977 the Dodgers have had three or more players with 10 or more wins going into the break.
Dee Gordon scored the lone run of the game, putting himself in position to score on Yasiel Puig's single after singling to lead off the inning and stealing his league-leading 43rd base of the season.
